Hamlet – Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre

Tue, June 25 - Sat, August 31

|£13.75 – £65.95

Event Navigation

Considered by many to be Shakespeare’s greatest play, Hamlet is a dark and brooding psychological thriller. Encompassing political intrigue, humour, obsession, murder, tragedy, desire, madness and some of the most touching lines in the English language about what it means to be alive, Hamlet has it all.

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, encounters the ghost of his dead father one night on the castle ramparts. Describing how he was killed by his brother Claudius, who has now supplanted him on the throne, the ghost orders Hamlet to avenge his murder.

Appalled by the rapid remarriage of his mother, Gertrude, to his uncle, Claudius, Hamlet initially seems bent on revenge. However, he sinks into a deep melancholy and even apparent madness, at what he sees as the betrayal of his noble father. Once his father’s ghost reappears to whet his son’s ‘almost blunted purpose’, the pace of the action picks up in alarming ways.

King Claudius is ambitious, ruthless and as suspicious of Hamlet as Hamlet is of Claudius. The royal palace of Elsinore soon becomes a hot-bed of spying, deception, murder and revenge and many characters become swept up in the drama’s tragic momentum.

Shows will go ahead in all weather conditions, and will only be cancelled in extreme situations. No refunds or exchanges will be permitted due to the weather, unless the show is cancelled.

The venue is a three tiered Elizabethan Theatre with 200 cushioned backed seats under cover, and 350 standing places in the Yard which are uncovered. Standing places are directly in front of the stage and as close to the stage as it’s possible to get. Some of the acting happens in the Yard so it’s the place to be! No seat is more than approximately 15 metres from the stage.